Rapunzel

During her last week at school, Abby's class put on a couple of plays. She was the witch in Rapunzel. It was really cute to go see the plays.

Planting Daisies

I have quite a few pictures to post, but the last couple of weeks have been so busy that I don't seem to get around to them all.  So my goal for today is to get caught up.

Last Thursday, Abby's girl scout trip went to plant daisies at the retirement home in Sycamore.  I went along and helped.  It was a lot of fun. 

Here she is planting her daisy plant.



Here is the troop!

Please support me in Relay For Life

None of us has to look far to see the effects of cancer. Some of us only have to look in the mirror. As you may know, I was diagnosed with Stage III papillary-follicular thyroid cancer on November 3rd, 2005. I am about to celebrate the 3 year anniversary of the day that I was first told that my cancer is in remission.  I cannot think of a better way to honor the battle I fought along with my family than to be involved in Relay For Life.

I’ve decided to Fight Back by joining a Relay For Life team and have pledged to raise $100 for the American Cancer Society. I hope you'll consider joining me in this fight by making a contribution to my Relay team. You can do so by clicking the link to my Relay web site at the bottom of this page. It is also not too late to join my Relay team which you can also do by clicking this link to my Relay site. 

Friday Five: 5 Things I want to improve on

A friend of mine once said that from time to time he thought it was a good idea to take a step back and evaluate his life and what needed to be changed.  I agree.  It's too easy to get into a rut and not see how things could be better. I am at a point in my life where I feel that I need to make some changes.  I think it's a great thing to be always evolving as a person, changing things up on a path to improvement.  These are 5 things I am working on right now.

1. Patience. This is about more than waiting in line.  It's about letting go of the need to control things when it's not possible and just letting fate step in. 

2. Spirituality.  I need to find more spiritual guidance.  Finding a faith "home" means overcoming my social anxiety and putting myself in a situation outside of my comfort zone.  The payoff will be worth the anxiety. 

3. Organization.  This is such an important ingredient in living a lower stress life. How can anyone feel calm if there surroundings are in disarray?  

4. Home Improvement.  Time to face the fact that the housing market is not getting better and we are not going to win the lottery (mostly because we don't even play).  This leads me to want to make the best out of what I do have.  I am tired of looking at scuffed up white walls...time to paint them. Rather than vocalizing my dissatisfaction over my surroundings, I need to change them.

5. My relationship with food.  Obviously we need food to survive, but we don't need it to cope. I am working to nourish my body instead of using it to soothe my soul.  It doesn't soothe me.  It makes me feel worse...it causes me more pain. While it's true that I don't have good metabolism, there are things I am doing that prevent me from losing this extra weight. Time to take responsibility for that.  Time to break up with cheese fries!

I <3 IKEA

I have been bugging requesting for Josh to take a day off and go to IKEA with me for the past month or two to get some stuff. Our house is small for 4 people and our biggest problem is storage.  Since we don't forsee moving anytime soon (thank you crappy housing market), we are attacking the problem room by room.  Since we both use the computer like all the time for Facebook either school or work, we needed to have 2 good size desks rather than 1 we had.  

After spending a fun day at IKEA eating and shopping (yes we managed to eat breakfast & lunch there), we now have a wall of desk space in our master bedroom and a new bookshelf.  We are most likely going to need another bookshelf in the future for storage.  I am so excited that not only do we each have a desk for our laptops, but I have a space dedicated to scrapbooking and some real storage.  

The highlights of our trip....

FREE coffee before 11am accompanied by the $1 cinnamon roll we split...



Josh


Some of what we got while there:






I want to go back and get this rug for our living room:

Playing with Bowser

Yesterday we went over to Cassandra and Joe's to hang out with them for awhile and we got to hold and play with their hedgehog, Bowser.  Abby really liked playing with her. Here they are:

Sad news

If you are my Facebook friend, you already know this so I apologize for being repetitive.  Late Friday night my pregnant sister and brother-in-law were in a terrible car crash involving 2 other cars.  They were taken by ambulance to the hospital were they were treated for burns from the airbag. They also have some scratches and bruises from the accident.  Since Cassandra's pregnancy is not more than 20 weeks along, they didn't keep her to monitor the baby.  We are all hoping and praying for everyone to heal physically and emotionally. 

They are lucky that my brother-in-law Joe was able to slow down and react in time to minimize their impact. We are so thankful that they are alright. Unfortunately a passenger in the car that hit them was killed as a result of the accident.  My heart goes out to her family. 

Even though it isn't entirely accurate, I'm posting the news article about the crash below....

One dead, 3 hurt in Northlake crash

A Chicago woman died Saturday from injuries sustained in a crash at a Walmart store entrance Friday night in Northlake. The incident left three others injured as well.
Three vehicles collided near a Wal-Mart store entrance at North Avenue and Hillside about 11:30 p.m. Friday, said Hillside Fire Department Lt. Milnes.

Four people were initially injured in the crash, Milnes said. Two people were taken in critical condition to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood and two people were taken to Elmhurst Memorial Hospital in fair condition. All the injured individuals were adults.

Hoa Ngo, 71, of 5107 N. Monticello Ave., was pronounced dead at Loyola University Medical Center at 4:50 a.m., a spokesman for the Cook County Medical Examiner's office said.

Northlake police would not comment on the crash Saturday.

An autopsy for Ngo is slated for Sunday.

— Sun-Times News Group

Source